Q. Nick, since Jalen's last trip to the Meadowlands, play has really jumped. What do you remember about him during that time and his response to a bad game?
NICK SIRIANNI: What I really remember from that game and that response was just the entire team. Jalen has always been working to be the best player he can possibly be.
There's a picture that's up somewhere in this facility. You would say, Oh, the pictures in the facility are celebrating plays being made by players in this building. But there's one picture that's up with Jordan Mailata with his hand on Jalen's back. Jalen has his hands on his knees. He's looking down. Jordan has his hand on his back.
I thought what an unbelievable picture of the teammates being there for each other in a time of a very tough spot, right? That was after the incomplete pass on the last play of the game last year at New York.
I just thought, like, obviously Jalen, we talk so much about him, the growth of what he's done. Of course, he learned a bunch of things from that game where we made a bunch of mistakes as coaches, made some mistakes as players.
But what really strikes me from that game, obviously we watch that game, we're pissed about things that happened in that game, this and that. They played a really good game there defensively last year on that.
When you said that game, the first thing that popped into my mind was that picture of Jordan and Jalen. That just speaks to the type of guys we have. That just speaks to the type of team we have.
Q. Where is that picture?
NICK SIRIANNI: It's somewhere. I'd have to look exactly. I know I'm supposed to be getting one for my office. I was supposed to get one like a year ago. I haven't gotten it yet.
Is it in that one hallway? It's somewhere. It's somewhere up.
Q. You've had a lot of success on the road. What is the key?
NICK SIRIANNI: I think you know you're going to have adversity on the road. You're going to have adversity at any point in the NFL. But you're playing a lot of different factors.
It's just sticking together as a team. This is going to be any game, but specifically on the road, there's going to be ups and there's going to be downs. You got to fight through the downs, and you have to do whatever you need to do to come out, scratch, claw, do whatever you need to do to get out with a win.
This team just understands that. This team knows we got to be ready to have the dog mentality on every single play. Again, you don't want to say it doesn't happen at home, but it happens a little bit extra on the road we feel like.
Q. What do you see in the growth of Daniel Jones?
NICK SIRIANNI: Yeah, I see him doing a really nice job on taking care of the football, not screwing anything up over there, just playing good quarterback play.
A lot of times that is good quarterback play where you're not putting the ball at danger. You still see the ability to make throws. You still see the ability to run. You see his growth as a player.
First and foremost, just taking care of the ball and playing good team football. Secondly, you just see the development of Daniel with just where he's going with the football, the throws that he's making. Knew he always could run. You're just seeing his development.
That doesn't surprise me. I know how good of a Coach Daboll is. I know their O-line coach is a really good coach. Worked with him in Indy. Hats off to Daniel Jones for putting that team in position.
They're doing a good job of running the football, taking some off of him because they got a really good running back as we all know.
I think, yes, it's the development of Daniel Jones under Brian, but it's development of the whole entire team under Coach Daboll. That's where I see a lot of growth.
Q. You talk about the moment with Jordan and Jalen. Is Jalen's relationship with the offensive line different than other places you've been?
NICK SIRIANNI: I think the teams that I've been on that have been good have that relationship with most the whole group, right? Particularly there's a special relationship between the offensive line and the quarterback. I see that here, right?
It's tight. It's a tight group. I think that's one of those things when we talk about our core values: connect, compete, accountability, football IQ, fundamentals. When we talked about that, introduced that, this is a common denominator of good teams we've been on.
Think about it. Are there good teams you've been on that do... All those things. It's the same thing there. The good teams I've been on have had that special relationship not only amongst the entire team, but especially between the quarterback and the offensive line.
So I think that's what you're seeing with Jalen and those guys. They're tight. That's obviously what you want.
Q. What's the toughest aspect of preparing for a divisional rival that has a familiarity with your roster?
NICK SIRIANNI: Just that. Sometimes there's unknowns about things in a team. I was always taught that: don't ever forget about a good pass-rusher. Let's say you're playing whoever, a really good pass-rusher. You're not in the division. Don't ever think about if it's not in division, just because he hasn't made a play in the last three weeks, hasn't made a sack in the last three weeks, that if you don't pay attention to him, he's not going to make a sack.
When you're playing a division rival where you know those guys, like, that thought process, you don't skip that thought process ever. We try not to skip it ever, but I know sometimes it does happen other places where it's like, Hey, that guy hasn't made a sack in a while, don't pay any attention to him.
This team, with the two guys they have inside, their edge rushers, we know this team. Thibodeaux is new. We did a lot of work on him. The other guys we've been playing for a couple years.
Like, we know how much attention we have to bring to him. So if we think that way, of course the Giants are thinking that way. I think that's what makes division games the types of games they are where they're close, they're down to the wire. It's always a dogfight.
I think to me that's one of the reasons why, with the familiarity with the opponent's players. Now, opponent's schemes, obviously they weren't there last year, so this is a little bit new. But once you become familiar with the opponent's schemes, it comes even tighter and a dogfight.
So when it happens like that, you just got to be on your fundamentals more, all those little things that we talk about, all those details really matter.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports